I stood in a pillar of light. Darkness surrounded me. Pikachu was clinging to
the pants leg of my jeans. All I knew is that I felt a deep fear. A fear of
something that was about to happen that I did not want to happen. I could not
explain this fear. It seemed as though this fear was etched deep within the
very recesses of my soul. For some reason, I felt that pikachu shared this
fear. We were both afraid. Very afraid. But we didn't know what we were afraid
of. Then the room went totally black. My pulse quickened. My eyes strained to
see. I stretched my hands before me. I couldn't see them, much less anything
else. Then it hit me. Pikachu wasn't holding on to me anymore! I tried to call
out to him but no sound came from my mouth. I felt helpless in this deep
darkness. I tried to run to get away from this fear but my legs would not move.
Then as quickly as the light had gone out, a bright light appeared before me.
It was so bright, that I had to shield my eyes. When the light died down I
tried to look at it's source. What I saw horrified me. I did not want this!
What I saw was.....

I woke with a start. My body was covered in cold sweat. I couldn't remember
what I had seen in my dream. In fact I was beginning to forget the dream
already. But the deep fear was still in me. Pikachu was snoozing next to me as
he always did. I lightly scratched his head. He stirred a little but did not
wake up. I checked my watch. Two a.m. In a few hours, I would face team rocket
for the earth badge. Was that nightmare some kind of omen? What is going to
happen to me? Will something happen to pikachu? I had all these questions, but
no answers. Somehow I felt that going to the gym would provide all my answers.
I laid down and fell asleep almost instantly.

Bright and early the next morning we headed out to the gym. I didn't tell
anyone about my dream. Even though I couldn't remember most of it, I still felt
that fear. We stood before the Viridian City Gym. I looked into it the night
before. Viridian City Gym doubles as the headquarters of Team Rocket. We
entered the gym. It seemed as though we had entered while an argument was
heating up.

"How pathetic is this?" A man standing in some shadows asked.

"It's not pathetic! This guy is dangerous!" I recognized the voice
of Kirby.

"He's extremely dangerous! If he comes here, he'll surely destroy us
all!" That was Lilly.

"Let me get this straight. First you fail to capture a rare pokemon,
kill a gym leaders pokemon, let this kid beat you up, lose countless pokemon
battles and you still have the guts to come asking for forgiveness?!" The
man said.

"But boss!" Lilly pleaded.

"Enough! You are a disgrace to Team Rocket!" The boss said.

"Hey boss! We have company!" A member of team rocket had finally
noticed us. Lilly and Kirby turned around and recognized us.

"He's the one boss! We got to stop him before he causes more
damage!" Kirby pleaded.

"We'll get him this time!" Lilly said. "There's no way we can
lose this time!" Lilly said.

"Enough! You have disgraced the name of Team Rocket!" The boss
said.

"But boss, I thought we have to fight for evil!" Kirby said.

"Yes. But you went a few steps too low. Stand down Lilly and Kirby. You
are to be replaced." The boss said.

"What!?" Lilly and Kirby asked at the same time.

"There's gonna be little chance of that happening anytime soon!"
Kirby said as he produced a voltorb. "Voltorb! Self-destruct!"

Kirby tossed the voltorb in the air. The voltorb exploded and a large cloud
of smoke and dust formed around everyone. I grabbed pikachu so that they
wouldn't. When the smoke cleared, Lilly and Kirby were standing in the doorway.

"No one will ever be able to replace us!" Kirby said.

Pikachu let loose with an electric shock at Lilly and Kirby, shocking them
both. The took off running. Ian went to the door to look.

"Hmmm. Straight to the point eh? Okay. But three against one is not
fair. Musashi! Kojiro!" A young man and a young woman stood on each side
of Giovanni. "Your friends will fight these two. You will fight me."

"Sounds good to me." I said.

"Pi-ka-chu!" Pikachu said.

"Guess I can use the practice." Ian said as he slipped a pokeball
into his hand.

"Bring it on." Andrew said as he chose a pokeball.

"Very well. But as is our custom, we will do the Team Rocket
Motto!" Giovanni said.

"Awww. Do we have to?" Andrew said.

"Hey, remember that Ian hasn't heard it yet." I told Andrew.

"Prepare for trouble!" Musashi said.

"And make it..." Kojiro started.

"Triple!" Giovanni interrupted.

"To protect the world from devastation!" Musashi said.

"To unite all peoples within our nation!" Kojiro said.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" Musashi struck a pose.

"To extend our reach to the stars above!" Giovanni said.

"Musashi!"

"Kojiro!"

"Giovanni!"

"Team Rocket! Blast off at the speed of light!" Musashi and Kojiro
said.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight." Giovanni said.

Ian almost fell over laughing.

"You guys were right. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever
heard!" Ian said.

Kojiro and Andrew went into battle. Musashi and Ian started a pokemon battle.
Giovanni tossed out a pokeball. A dugtrio appeared.

"Trio! Trio! Trio!" The dugtrio's three heads said.

Pikachu went to challenge the dugtrio.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Giovanni laughed. "You really think an
electric type will do any good against an earth type!?"

"Pikachu isn't only an electric type." I said.

"Dugtrio! Scratch!" Giovanni said.

The dugtrio produced a small brown claw and attempted to scratch pikachu.
Pikachu easily dodged the attack.

"Pikachu! Quick attack!" I yelled.

Pikachu went into a fury of quick hits on the dugtrio. The dugtrio pulled
its heads into the ground.

"It's dugtrio's dig attack! Pikachu! Agility now! Dodge the
attack!" I yelled. The ground began to shake as pikachu started running.
The dugtrio popped up right behind pikachu. Pikachu had successfully dodged the
attack. Pikachu tried another quick attack. The dugtrio wasn't able to dodge
that attack and got pummeled.

"Pikachu! Swift attack!" I yelled.

Pikachu let loose with an attack that combined his electric power and his
physical strength into shooting stars. The stars made contact. The dugtrio got
hit five times. But the dugtrio was much stronger than that. The dugtrio
charged straight at pikachu. The tackle attack hit pikachu. Pikachu tumbled for
a moment but quickly got back on his feet.

"It's no use!" Giovanni said. "We both know that a pikachu's
strength is in its electricity!"

I ignored him.

"Pikachu! Quick attack!" I yelled. Pikachu was determined and made
every quick hit count. But when I thought that his attack was over, he kept
attacking. The dugtrio had nowhere to run or hide and it was unable to burrow
into the ground. Pikachu kept hitting it with his quick attacks. Suddenly
pikachu stopped his attack. The dugtrio had fainted.

"Now where's a pikachu's strength?" I asked.

"Pika-pi!" Pikachu said victoriously.

Giovanni called dugtrio back and tossed out another pokeball. A rhydon
appeared. I had never seen a rhydon before so I pulled out dexter.

"Rhydon. The drill pokemon. The evolved form of rhyhorn. Protected by
an armor-like hide, it is capable of living in molten lava of three thousand,
six hundred degrees." Dexter said.

The rhydon started slashing at Ivysaur furiously. Ivysaur was able to dodge
many of the attacks but got hit by the rest. Ivysaur did not stop glowing.

"Rhydon! Horn drill!" Giovanni yelled.

The rhydon lowered its head and charged at Ivysaur at full speed. Ivysaur
dodged. Then, when the rhydon regained its bearings ivysaur let loose with his
solar beam attack. A large bright pillar of light shot out from ivysaur's back
and smashed into the rhydon. The room was filled with light. When the light
died down, the rhydon had fainted.

"Impossible!" Musashi said. "I lost!"

"This can't be! No one can beat Team Rocket!" Kojiro said.
"But I lost too!"

"I too concede defeat. You are stronger than I thought." Giovanni
said.

Giovanni presented us each of us with an Earth badge.

"In only a few months you will have to go to the Indigo Plateau. There
you will have to face the elite of Pokemon League." Giovanni said.
"It's a huge contest. Perhaps you've heard of the Super Ball
Tournament?"

"Yeah! That's where one team of trainers becomes official pokemon
league pokemon masters!" Ian said.

"My advice to you is to keep training and keep catching more pokemon if
you want to win. The three of you make a good team but you need four people to
enter the tournament." Giovanni said.

"Four people?" Ian asked.

"Hey Trey. Think Alexia would join us for the tournament?" Andrew
asked.

"Yeah. Let's head back to Lavender and see if we can find her. She says
she lives on the south side so it won't be hard to find her." I said.

"Then we're going back home?" Ian asked.

"Yeah. But then we'll decide what to do until the tournament from
there." I said.

We walked out of the gym and headed to the pokemon center. I noticed that
pikachu was holding something.

"Hey pikachu. What've you got there?" I asked.

Pikachu lifted a strange looking stone. It had a lighting bolt on it. I
pulled out Dexter.

"Thunder Stone. An evolutionary stone. The radiation from this stone
will cause electric pokemon, such as pikachu, to evolve." Dexter said.

"Pikachu! Get rid of that thing!" I said. But I was too late.
Pikachu had started to glow. I wanted to reach and grab the stone from him but
something inside made me stop. Pikachu got larger. His ears changed shape. His
tail straightened and became longer. His fur turned a dark tan color. I pulled
out Dexter.

"Raichu. The electric mouse pokemon. This is the evolved form of
pikachu. Its long tail serves as a ground to protect itself from its own high
voltage power." Dexter said.

"I've never seen a pikachu evolve itself before." Andrew said.

"That's because you've never seen a pikachu evolve before stupid!"
Ian said.

"Dude, why'd you let him evolve?" Andrew asked.

"I don't know. I wanted to stop him but something inside made me
stop." I said. "What have you done to yourself pikachu?"

"Raichu!" Raichu smiled at me.

"I heard that when a pikachu evolves, it takes on a whole 'nother
attitude. It's supposed to become more like a fighter than a friend." Ian
said.

"Yeah. Just like Lt. Surge's raichu." Andrew said.

"Chu! Chu!" Raichu shook his head.

"What is it? You're not gonna change?" I asked.

"Raichu!" Raichu nodded his head.

"Guess you really put a good influence on him Trey!" Ian said.

Raichu jumped up at me and I tried to catch him but I fell over backwards.